Rider's Creed
by USAF ParaJumper
Summary: Set seven years before book one, this is a story about Vaska, an Assassin-in-training, and his dragon Epsilon as he is trained as both an Assassin and a rider. Unfortunately, being the first Assassin and rider in a hundred years is going to be a bit troublesome because he doesn't want to be either one of them, but his partner will try to show him the importance of his position.
1. Chapter 1

**This first chapter is a tale that is passed down in this story that tells the origin of the Assassins in Alagaësia. The next chapter will be the start of the main story and I look forward to any and all feedback I receive.**

In the year of 1789 a group of twelve Assassins from all over the globe -three of them being master level, and the rest of them being instructors- traveled to the island of Palau Belitung located in Indonesia. They were targeting a group of Templars whom were transporting three apples of Eden to send to a more secure Templar-controlled region.

The Assassins knew that this could be an excellent chance to get an advantage in their struggle that has lasted for centuries but were weary of the risk that the assignment would have; the Templars would know that it would be too large of a target for them to pass up and would make preparations for their arrival. They used their wealth and political standing to influence the ports and harbor masters to allow their men to search every ship and its cargo that came into port on that island.

The thing that the Templars didn't expect was that the Assassins were disguised on some of the several ships that the Templars arrived on by sneaking onto them while crossing the Java Sea in various ways, some hid amongst the cargo for the duration of the voyage while others killed some of the crew members and took their place.

What impressed the group was what Nicolas Mathis -an low instructor-leveled Assassin at the age of nineteen from France- did to board one of the ships; a week before his targeted ship set sail, he had a look at the set course of the ship and copied it down. He then bought a one-manned boat and set out to the ocean and scanned the sea with his eagle vision while he waited for the sip to come to him. He was able to spot the large ship at the horizon and immediately scuttled his boat and swam to a spot that the ship would sail across then climbed the bow of it when it crossed next to him. Because his robes were a dark blue, he wasn't spotted when the ship passed next to him. Nicolas spent the rest of the ships voyage resting on the forward ram, shielded from both sharp eyes and the sun's harmful rays.

When they arrived at shore all of the Assassins disembarked and regrouped in the small towns that were dotted throughout the island and established their different bases of operations while awaiting the arrival of the ships carrying the apples. The twelve of them lived as civilians for an entire month until they received word of the arrival of the apples. For days they tracked the movements of the couriers until they were in just a few radius of each other and were ready to converge on one another and be sent away with an entire fleet guarding them.

The Assassins then launched their attack on the separate targets, killing the convoys and the couriers and escaping with the apples to another predetermined location. During the attacks however, one of the Assassins were killed while another two were injured and bleeding at a steady rate, which slowed down their escape dramatically and arrived at their destination in the woods almost a day late.

Once all of the Assassins were reunited along with the body of their deceased brother, they entrusted the three apples with the three master Assassins. But once all of the apples were exposed to one another they began to shake uncontrollably in their hand and engulfed the eleven Assassins in a white dome. They began to panic at the supernatural occurrence, two of them tried to break the solid barrier by striking it with their weapons with no effect. The apples started to hate up in the master Assassins hands to the point that they dropped them due to the heat that they produced.

They fell to the ground and started to glow red from the heat and started to catch some of the grass on fire along with melting to everyone's surprise. Not wanting to see all of their work wasted, the Assassins tried to cool down the artifacts by dumping their water canisters onto them and the fires but only to watch the apples melt into a liquid state and into the ground, only then that the dome collapse and left them in the woods.

With their prize and all of their water gone they still had to get their wounded treated but noticed that they were lost as well. The forest looked different from where they had stopped, the trees and bushes had switched positions from where they had met up and the tree that they had marked was completely gone. After deciding that they needed to find out where they were they all exchanged supplies like ammo and gunpowder to each other while they bandaged the wounded then started jogging so that the two who were carrying the body could keep up.

The group had expected to find a settlement within a day but after the third day of traveling they knew that they couldn't have been going in the right direction. It was during one of their stops by a river that they finally met one of the local inhabitants but were in for a surprise.

_Thud_. They heard as some of them bent down to take a drink. _Thud_. They heard again and paused from their rest. _Thud_. This time it was much louder and they all looked around at the surrounding trees, keeping an eye out for whatever was causing the sound.

Then all of a sudden an ear-piercing roar let out above them as a dragon dove in front of the group and landed on the other side of the river. The Assassins drew their swords and pistols and braced themselves for a fight. The nobody in the group knew what to do, they all have heard of the fire-breathing reptiles in stories and knew that if this thing wanted to it could kill all of them.

The dragon just stared at the for a few seconds to see what they would do before shifting its body to reveal a human on its back. The Assassins didn't know how to respond to what was happening but nobody wanted to make the first move. The rider dismounted the grey dragon and hailed the Assassins claiming that his name was Edvard son of Milan and that they were trespassing in the rider's training grounds. The Assassins questioned Edvard of where exactly they were and about his dragon.

Edvard could clearly tell that they weren't from Alagaësia once he peeked into all of their minds and was curious to know more about them. He talked with them for awhile long from across the small river to keep his and his dragon's distance, he then told them to follow him to meet with the other riders as he took off into the air.

The Assassins were eager to keep moving and followed the rider on foot, they were all asking the master Assassins what they should do and how they should proceed. They didn't have an answer for them and told them to stay vigilant and not to attack or speak to anyone unless told to do so.

They only took a single rest to check up on the Assassins that were injured while they were in Indonesia during the two hour hike; they followed Edvard until they reached a clearing in the woods that revealed a large settlement with dozens of dragons and their riders flying throughout the sky.

Edvard, along with two other riders and their dragons, landed in front of the group and walked with them into the camp. The riders and the Assassins conversed during the short trip until one of the riders, a human female by the name of Stephanie, noticed the blood stain on two of Assassin's robes where they were injured. She asked them if she could inspect the wounds to which they agreed, then she said a phrase in a language that the two men didn't recognize.

They both felt a tingling sensation from the tissue and watched as the area was completely healed. Not knowing what had happened to them, all that they could do was t give their thanks to the dragon rider.

All of the Assassins questioned on why they were there once they reached one of the main buildings; following their orders, all of the instructor-leveled Assassins allowed their leaders to speak for the group. They answered the riders truthfully but still had their minds searched unknowingly by the riders for anything that they might not like.

The three Assassins talked about their order and the war with the Templars to a certain point when they were asked if they were mercenaries, saying that they fight to free people from slavery and corrupt leaders while they help keep pace in other lands. The riders only nodded and told them that they were welcome to rest and resupply in one of the traveler areas for a few days.

That night, Nicolas' curiosity got the better of him and he went to look around to watch the dragons and the riders. He was absolutely fascinated by the creatures and was even rejected by one of the riders when he asked if he could ride their dragon in exchange for some of his throwing knives. He was able to get one of the other riders to show him around and led him to where the dragons would nest and told him stories about some of the legendary riders and dragons that have stayed there in the past.

He was then shown the building where people from all around the world where people could come to see if a dragon would hatch for them. Nicolas saw two rows of thirteen dragon eggs of various colors on pedestals that reached up to his waist. Each row had two guards stationed at the end of the columns in case anyone tried to steal or damage the eggs.

That night he went back and told the rest of his friends what he had learned; he was expecting to be scolded for leaving them in a foreign land but was told that most of the others also left to explore as well.

Nicolas woke up before the sun was able to peak over the horizon the next morning, he was restless and wanted to learn more about this place. He went to libraries, book stores, story tellers and more just so he could gather whatever information he could even though few places were open while he was awake. His search for information led him back to the dragon eggs, he entered the building and watched from a corner as some people would walk in and touch the eggs while waiting to see if one of them would hatch for them.

Once he was alone in the room, with the exception of the guards, he walked up to the eggs and examined them closely. To him they looked like large gems that were polished and placed into a museum or a rich man's private collection. No two eggs were quite alike, most had different colors than others but while some shared the same color they still had slightly different sizes and shades. He made his way across the first row of eggs just inspecting them until he felt something tugging on his mind. His gaze shifted to a bright green egg that was sitting on a pedestal in the back row.

While approaching it slowly, he never looked away from it. It drew him into it like a mosquito to a lamp that he would have at the bow of a boat. Once he was in front of it he just stood there for a little while, gazing at the slightly darker green lines looked like veins going across the shell. He suddenly got the urge to reach out and to touch the glossy surface. As he reached out the guards eyed him cautiously as they did to everyone that went up to touch them.

The egg felt just as he had expected it to, a smooth surface yet he could feel an aura of power and mystery surrounding over it. He then felt a small vibration coming from the egg and took his hands off of it, thinking that he wasn't being as gentle as he should have been. The egg continued to shake and the guards took notice; one of them left the room with a sense of urgency while the others shut the doors and sealed him inside.

Believing that they might have been trying to attack him, he reached into his side pouch and retrieved his nine-section chain whip that he used as him primary weapon. It reached four and a half feet and had a solid dart at the end of the metal chain. He spun the weapon to keep the guards back to which they rose their weapons in a defensive stance. They claimed that they weren't going to harm him and told him to look at the egg.

While keeping his whip in motion, he peered over his shoulder to find a small green dragon laying amongst the broken shell. After looking back at the guards he put the chain whip away to get a look at the dragon and consulted his company on what had happened. They claimed that he was chosen by the dragon to be its rider then was told to touch the dragon. Nicolas removed his left glove and hesitated for a moment before reaching out to the dragon. As soon as he felt the scales on its head a sharp pain shot up his arm and he removed his hand to find a glowing white circle on his palm.

They were greeted by Edvard along with three other riders, the guard that ran out, and two of his fellow Assassins, they questioned him on what happened. After explaining that the dragon had hatched for him, he and the other Assassins were invited to stay at their training camp of Hvitr Datia, or 'White Mist' as they called it.

In the months that followed, Nicolas was trained to be a rider along with his dragon, Palau, that he named after the island that they were on a few days ago. She proved to be a challenge since he started to share his thoughts with her and often wished that he was still able to have the privacy that he once had.

The rest of the Assassins continued their work as peace keepers just as they did before; with the dragon riders being the ultimate authority in the land, they didn't have to do the assassination missions that they did so well. After the first year of living in Alagaësia the Assassins knew that the chances of returning home were slim; not wanting the order to die in this land, they started to train others to be Assassins just as they used to. It would take many years before the first few would be ready to be considered an Assassin but they knew the importance of keeping a government in check.

Nicolas was still a fully fledged member of the order and him along with the other instructor Assassins eventually reached the title of Master Assassin. He still gave the order his full support and was even able to convince the other riders to grant the Assassins a white dragon egg so that one day it might hatch for someone else of the order.

After twenty years of staying in Alagaësia the Assassins fears came to light, a rider named Galbatorix recruited Morzan and many other riders who called themselves the Forsworn, started to hunt down and kill every other dragon and rider that they saw including Nicolas and Palau. The Forsworn drove the Assassins and those still training into hiding in Surda where they built a new training ground along one of its rivers.

After Galbatorix rose to power with the Forsworn at his command, the Assassins were able to find work as 'peace keepers' they assisted a man by the name of Brom in the planning of their assassinations and extended to him their services for the time being. Most of the original Assassins died in the line of duty due not only to the hazards but their age started to take its toll on them during battle. They made sure that whenever one of them were to die in battle that all of their equipment was retrieved especially their pistols. They wanted to make sure that their technology wasn't duplicated or used by anyone outside of the order during their entire time in Alagaësia.

Throughout the next eighty years many Assassins came and went, a good number of them being descendants of the original twelve member. They spent their time in Surda either training or planning an assassination of some corrupt leader in the Empire's land. Having around a square mile of land to use for their purposes, they made the most of it; having gardens on the roofs of buildings instead of plowing the lands. They build artificial structures in the river for their parkour training so that if someone were to fall they would land in the water instead of rock.

But in the center of the town was a shrine that anyone could enter at any time that the sun was up, sitting on its original pedestal while being guarded by two Assassins, lay the same white egg with red vein-like line running across it that Nicolas granted the Assassins almost one hundred years ago and yet still was unknown by Galbatorix. There it laid, waiting for its rider that would one day help avenge the deaths of the riders and Assassins whom died in the name of peace.


	2. Chapter 2

**This is where the main story starts about our Assassin. Another piece of information is the Assassin ranks; they are as follows: 1-Recruit, 2-Initiate, 3-Apprentice, 4-Novice, 5-Foot pad, 6-Disciple, 7-Mercenary, 8-Warrior, 9-Instructor/Teacher, 10-Assassin, 11/12/13/14/15 - Assassin rank 2/3/4/5/Master. That's all I have to say. Enjoy.**

Vaska was never very fond of high places and his rock climbing test wasn't helping to comfort him. He was currently suspended thirty five feet above a man-made pond of the side of a cliff without any climbing gear. Today was field test day, a day that all of the recruit leveled Assassins took a series of test to see if they were ready to be promoted to the rank of Initiate, the second Assassin level. they started this test after they had held the rank of recruit for eight months, most of them were around fifteen years old just like himself but some were as old as seventeen.

He and seven others were being timed on how fast they could swim thirty feet across a stream then climb fifty feet on a rocky surface. They were given five minutes to complete the course and the instructor had just rang the four minute bell. Vaska cursed under his breath as he saw the second recruit make it to the top. He knew that he would just barely make it on time, his record for the event was four minutes and fifty seconds and he was just three-fourths of the way up. Looking back down the way he climbed up he saw one of the others slip and fall into the water below.

Up at the top he saw the two that had already finished cheering on and motivating everyone else to finish on time. He took another few steps up the cliff face, paused to catch his breath then continued climbing. Another recruit made it up to the top and joined in the cheering.

"Thirty seconds!" Instructor Vaughn called out to those that were still climbing. "Remember that the enemy would be shooting arrows at you at this point!"

Vaska let out a sigh, "We would all be dead at this point." He mumbled then took another step but felt the rock give way under his weight and started to slide down. Multiple times he tried to grab another rock or get a foot hold and failed every time, the only thing that he could do was slow his speed and reduce the pain when he would hit the water.

He hit the water with a loud crash and surfaced to hear Instructor Vaughn end the test. The rest of the recruits that were still climbing either tried to finish or dove into the water to join him. Out of the eight that started the test, only three of them passed.

Vaska swam beside one of the other recruits and they both told each other what went wrong during their climb. Although they were both disappointed by the outcome, they still had a chance to get their promotion depending on how well they did on the next two test: the information collection and evasion. They didn't have to do any weapons or combat test until they reached the fifth rank, which had the title of Footpad because they would be sent on foot to gather information for future assassinations. Everyone was trying to push their fellow recruits to get their promotion because the new rank also granted them their own short sword and a single hidden blade which would be their first weapons.

The entire group traveled back into town and was given some time to change into their white and red robes and were told what to expect in the information collection test. They were put in teams of two and were each given the description of someone that they were supposed to follow that was inside of the town; their mission was to collect a token from their target in any way they could.

Vaska was paired up with Rode, one of the recruits that passed the last test. Everyone was given a seven hour time limit then released to go find and pursue their targets. The two of them climbed onto the top of one of the buildings to get a vantage point and to discuss their plan of action.

Rode was the first to speak. "Ok so this guy is tall, has black hair with no beard, works as a blacksmith, and isn't married. So we have a possible location and not much else; do you have any ideas on how we are going to find him?"

Vaska thought about it for a moment before realizing that it would be best to think out loud to get feedback during his thought process. "So besides the location as a hint we know that his description puts him in the majority of the people here."

"So this might take awhile."

"Not exactly." Vaska replied. "He's a blacksmith so we know that he will be better built than others."

Rode nodded to the observation. "And since we know that most smiths here are younger than forty we can narrow the range of ages."

"That we can, and since the smiths work at this hour we can assume that he will also be wearing protective clothing so look out for leather chest pieces and gloves." Thinking games were something that Vaska was good at and enjoyed doing on a day to day basis.

"But what about him not being married? What does that have to do with this?" Rode asked.

"Him not being married means that he won't be wearing a ring."

"I know that, but a black smith won't be wearing it anyway because he wouldn't want it to get damaged or caught on anything."

Vaska thought about it for a minute and wasn't able to come up with an answer. "I honestly have no idea." He admitted.

Rode chuckled. "I thought were good at this type of stuff." he said as a joke to witch Vaska laughed a little at.

"I normally am but that whole married thing doesn't make sense and there is a chance that neither of us could get promoted if we fail; and I thought that you could make the climb faster than you did." He joked back.

"I normally do," Rode mocked. "but fully soaked robes tend to weigh you down when climbing. And don't forget that if got a high enough score on your written test and evaluation then you would only have to do well on one of the field test." The two of them were good friends and trained together often in martial arts and helped each other study.

The two of them continued to talk about the mission and tried to narrow their search as much as possible then discussed what to do incase if something went wrong and made a fallback plan if worse came to worse. Once they both believed that they were ready, they made their way to the nearest black smith. Rode traveled along the rooftop while Vaska moved with the people in the streets and even walked into one of the other recruits who was still after his target.

Once they made it to the first shop, Rode hid behind some potted plants on a roof and watched the ground below while Vaska stood in front of a leather shop and made it look like he was waiting on someone but was using his peripheral vision to look for any blacksmiths. He glanced over the shop every few seconds and wondered if he would even have the token on him. The shop was an open air environment so he was able to see all of his equipment from the sharpening wheel to smelting pots.

They stayed in their positions for fifteen minutes before they eventually saw a smith; the man walked out of the front doors to the leather shop that he was standing in front of which made him tense up for a second because he had no idea he was so close to a possible target. The man had fit the description, tall, black hair, clean shaved, and he was wearing a smith's tool belt; but he couldn't see the man's left hand because he had some leather strips draped over it.

Vaska rubbed his lips with his right hand which was their predetermined signal that told Rode that he couldn't tell if this was their man. Vaska kept his eye on him as he walked back to his shop and set the leather on one of the tables but he still wasn't able to get a good view. He decided to break his cover and approached the shop to get a better view despite his better judgment. The man's back was facing him so Vaska was able to close the distance faster than he normally would but stopped as soon as he saw the glow of a golden ring on his finger and quickly changed course.

This process continued for the next two locations taking and took three hours to make sure that they weren't who they were looking for. Once they were finished with the fourth location they both met up on a street bench to talk about where to go next.

"This is taking too long. We only have three hours left and we still have five others to check." Vaska complained.

"Yeah I kind of wish we were like other towns that only had one smith or two but we just happen to have a big weapon contract with the entire nation of Surda and we need multiple shops to meet the demand." Rode added.

"And we can't split up because this is both our scores."

"let's just hit the next one, it's just down this street." Rode said as he pointed to his left. "Do you want the roofs this time or do you want to stay on foot?" He offered.

Vaska just shrugged and said, "I'll just stay on the ground." With that they parted ways and made their way down the street.

Vaska was starting to get frustrated with today's performance because he couldn't rely on his written test and evaluation, he wasn't a bad student but he wasn't good enough to use those scores as a fallback. 'If I don't pass these then I have to wait another three months before I can take this test again and I'll have to redo all of my training.' He pounded into his own mind. This was also a large deal because even though there was a large fail rate for all of the promotions, those whom were descendants of the twelve Assassins were only expected to have difficulty getting promoted until they reached the sixth level. The main reason people believed this was because descendants like him and Rode were able to use 'Eagle Vision' as their lessons called it.

As the shop came into view, Vaska took a seat on a bench where he could clearly see the smith working on shaping a piece of metal into the hilt of a sword. The man was wearing gloves as was expected so they would have to wait even longer. The first few minutes went by slowly as all he was able to do was watch him pound the metal with a hammer and he lost interest in it quickly. The next half hour went by the same way without anything of importance happening so he started to go over mental exercises for the next test and imagining different scenarios of what could happen and what he would do if he gets promoted.

Vaska quickly snapped out his daydream to focus on what was going on when he realized that his trance could cost him dearly if he didn't catch something important. He was glad that he stopped when he did because a few minutes later a woman walked up to the shop and started speaking with the man. Vaska was sure that he was watching as well as the man took off his glove and saw that he didn't have a ring on his hand. Vaska was about to start to make his move but stopped when the woman put her arms around the smith and kissed him on the lips.

He could feel his heart sink a little after they wasted their time at that shop and just watched the couple do a small turn so that the smith had his back towards him. That's when something caught his eye or rather a lack of something. The woman had her arms around the man's neck but she didn't have a ring on her either. Vaska realized that just because their target wasn't married, that didn't mean that he wasn't in a relationship.

Vaska rubbed the back of his neck with his left hand, signaling to Rode that this was their man then he silently approached the man as Rode got into position along the rooftops. Casually walking up to the shop, Vaska eyed the different swords that the owner had on display and did this until the blacksmith noticed him.

"Do you see one you like?" Was all he asked.

Vaska walked along the rows until had came across a bo staff that was leaning up against a wall next to the swords. The staff wasn't like any regular spear, upon touching it he found out that it was actually made from metal and had carvings in that that gave it the texture of wood and was painted accordingly, and at the top of the staff was a twelve inch spear tip that was imbedded in the pole.

He then turned to the smith and said to him, "I do." then grabbed the staff and bolted out of the shop with the weapon.

The smith didn't take to kindly to him stealing his merchandise and ran out after him and called out, "Thief!" and things like, "Come back here." Expecting his words to stop him.

Vaska ran through the buildings but at a speed that his pursuer could still keep up with and ran into an alleyway where Rode would be hiding. He slowed down his pace to encourage the man to keep chasing him into the trap that was set for him. Once the smith was about to grab Vaska, another figure ran into the man and tackled him to the ground from the side and pinned him in place while he tried to cover his mouth to silence him.

Vaska turned around and brought the spear two feet away from the man's face and said while making gestures to his neck and chest, "Stab, stab you're dead." Then the smith went limp as though he was really dead as was a part of the test. "Thanks Rode."

"No problem. How do you know if this is him?"

"The woman he was kissing didn't have a ring on her hand and we both know that a married woman wouldn't take if off if she didn't have to so let's just find his token and get out of here." They started searching his pockets for anything but found nothing; they then started patting the body down but still didn't find anything. "Do you think I made a wrong call?" Vaska asked.

"If he wasn't a part of our test do you think that he would be playing dead right now?" Rode said as he removed the smith's boots and shook them out then smiled as two golden coins with a 'one' on each of them fell out. "You made a good call." Rode said then patted Vaska on the back.

As Rode took off with the coins, Vaska placed the staff next to the smith and said, "I just might buy this from you." then followed his partner to the finish line. The two of them were so excited about completing their mission at this point that they broke out into a full sprint as they made their way across the streets.

At one point, Vaska fell behind by about twenty feet and ran into a large man that walked in front of him and received punch that he dodged but still scraped the back of his white robes then took off running after Rode again.

They both made it to the finish line at the Assassin shrine which was a building in the center of the town and was like a museum or library about the Assassins and how they arrived in Alagaësia and it also held the dragon egg that the Assassin Nicolas granted to their order. Instructor Vaughn along with two of the other teams were waiting in front of the building in a line near the entrance. Vaughn instructed them both to join the others and not to talk at all and didn't even ask for their tokens.

As they walked to their spots, Vaska received a mixed of shocked and worried expressions from the others but couldn't ask them why. When he turned to Rode he saw him mouth out the words 'I'm sorry'. He thought of what he would be sorry about but they only thing that he could think about were the coins that Rode was supposed to have on him. Vaska swore that if he had lost them that he would personally break his nose when they were done.

They stood there waiting for the last team for an hour and just watched the sun set in the horizon as the sky changed colors. When the last team arrived they joined the rest of them and waited for Vaughn to speak.

The Instructor walked in front of them and pointed to three of the different recruits, one of them being him. "I want you three to move forward so that your backs are facing your partner." Vaska did as he was instructed then felt Vaughn pull something off of the back of his robe then showed it to him. It was a small hook with a three inch chain that had a red flag on its end, and on the flag was an image of a dagger. "This test was combined with your evasion exam. After you all found your target, you were being hunted by someone who identified you as Assassins. Those with this flag were killed in action; I hope this makes you all realize that when on an assignment anybody could be trying to kill you."

Vaska turned to face Rode. "I'm sorry." He said. "I didn't know."

"Stop talking!" Vaughn shouted to Rode. "All of you are just as equally to blame. At some point or another you left your teammate and didn't watch out for him. If you had been looking out for him then you could have stopped the aggressor or have pulled out the knife from his back and I wouldn't have even known that he was dead." Vaughn continued to thrash everyone individually except for the one team that made it out alive.

Vaska thought about when he was killed then thought about when they were running back to the shrine, when he ran into the man that tried to punch him but just hit the end of his clothing. 'That was the guy.' He thought to himself.

Vaughn collected the tokens from those that weren't 'killed' during the test then told everyone that the results will be released in three days.

In a fit of rage, Vaska went into the shrine, pushing Rode out of his way. The building only had a few people inside of it and was silent until Rode came in after him. "Vaska wait." He said to him. "Listen I didn't know that we were being followed and I didn't know that you fell behind."

"Well you didn't exactly check to see if I close!" He shouted back, drawing attention to them both. "Now because of this I won't become an Initiate and I have to go through months worth of training again while you advance on."

"You don't know that. Nobody knows that. With the evaluation and written portion you could still make it." Rode was being sincere with his words even though Vaska didn't believe him. "I'll tell you what, I'll meet you at your place in an hour with some mead and we can talk about what to do next. And if you move on and you don't then I'll show you the lessons that I'll go through so that in a few months when we are both the same rank you won't be behind. Ok?"

"Ok." Vaska replied in a much calmer voice. "I'll be there in about two hours though, I'm going to have a look around here though." With that, Rode patted him on the shoulder and said goodbye as he left Vaska in the shrine. He was still upset with the test but he would get over it after awhile. He walked down the halls of the buildings and admired some of the paintings of different Assassins along the walls.

Some were portraits while others depicted them hiding amongst a crowd of people while hunting their target and at the very end was a painting of Nicolas and his dragon Palau. It showed them both of the side of a cliff above a green meadow, Palau was sitting down on the rocks, looking across the plain while her partner leaned up against her right side in his dark blue robes. Her scales were slightly darken than the grass that covered the landscape but she was up high enough so the it was just the sky that was behind her.

Vaska was envious of him, to have a connection with such a beautiful creature and to be loved and respected by so many. If only he were a rider during Nicolas' time he would have been traveling the world to see its wonders but to be a dragon rider now was a death sentence. Everybody knew that whomever bonded with a dragon now would be hunted by the king himself or be sent to assassinate him and be doomed to die. 'If only I was in Nicolas' time, when to be an Assassin wasn't a secret and you could live without the worry of being sent to your death.'


	3. Chapter 3

**I would just like to let everyone know that in the future that there will be a major delay in the updating of this story. On November 18th I will be shipped off to Cape May, New Jersey to go to United States Coast Guard Boot Camp. I should be arriving back in the first or second week of January so I'm hoping to finish before then. Thank you and enjoy.**

Vaska walked through the shrine for a little while to kill time until he needed to go back to his home to meet Rode. He mainly looked at some of the possessions of the twelve Assassins that were being displayed as a piece of history. Pieces like armor, articles of clothing from their robes, and some of the weapons that they used; the most valuable being Nicolas' nine-section whip that was displayed on a podium.

The scrolls said that the whip was a favorite among Asian Assassins and was a very difficult weapon to use and took years of training to be able to use it effectively in combat. Vaska moved onto the next room which had many scrolls about the history of the Assassin Order and their impact that they've had on Alagaësia and in the center of the room was a five-foot tall stone statue of the dragon Palau in a fighting stance. Everyone was allowed and encouraged to read the scrolls that were on the shelves as long as they were put back undamaged. Vaska often went here to study or to feed his interest in history especially after the fall of the rider's and how the Assassins founded Lifs Mor'ranr or Life's Peace.

He then saw some children run through the area and into the egg chamber with a lot of excitement. Vaska assumed that they were going to see if it hatched for them and decided to follow them and see if anything amusing would happen. He walked into the room and saw the kids standing a few feet away from the dragon egg and were being eyed by the female Assassin that was standing guard on the right side of the pedestal.

Vaska had only been in this room a few times but stayed away from the egg every time, some by his own choice and others times because many people were already trying their luck with fate. One by one the children approached the egg without anything happing to any of them. One of the kids was becoming upset when the egg did nothing; he's heard that this child had been coming here repeatedly without success and he felt a little sorry for him but still knew that it would only hatch for one person.

The children left a few minutes later, leaving only Vaska and the Assassin together. He began to stare at the egg for a little while before he felt a tingling feeling in his chest that was starting to annoy him. Shaking his head, Vaska turned and started to walk out the door just to get away from the egg. "Wait." the guard said to him before he was able to leave.

It was law for recruits to obey the commands of any other Assassin in the order so he stopped and faced the Assassin; she was wearing dark blue robes and had steel armor covering her shoulders. She also had a traditional black cape that went over her right arm and down just slightly past her hand. And through her hood, Vaska could see that she had brown hair and looked like she was in her mid to late thirties, "How may I be of service?" He said as was the proper way to address his superiors.

"You seemed troubled." She observed. "Is something wrong?"

Vaska didn't really want to talk about the field day test and how he messed up, "It isn't anything to be concerned about." He said respectfully. "It was just how field day went, nothing more."

"How did it go?" She asked. Vaska went on to tell her about how the rock climb went and how the rock broke underneath his foot, sending him into the water. After that she continued to ask him about field day and complimented him on how he did on the information collection. Then Vaska went on to explain what happened during their escape; she explained that the combining of the two test was a small twist that instructors were allowed to do, it taught young individuals that unexpected things will happen while completing a contract.

Their conversation went on for a few minutes longer and she was mainly giving him advice on his future as an Assassin while Vaska took mental notes. Then the Assassins decided to change topics completely, "I don't remember seeing you come in here before."

"I have, it's just that I don't come here very often." The feeling was returning to his chest again but unlike last time, he could start to feel something press against his mind. Vaska thought that it was because he was just stressed from today's events and thought nothing else of it but he could feel something coming from the egg. He used his eagle vision on the egg and saw it glowing white with a slight red border around the edges.

The Assassin rubbed her chin with her hand and began to examine Vaska's behavior, "You haven't approached the egg before, have you?"

"No." He replied as he stared at it.

"Well?" She said gesturing towards the egg. "Are you going to?"

He began to walk slowly towards it, his hands trembling as he got closer. He wanted to leave the room and go back to his home but he was given an order and if he ever wanted to advance in the ranks he would have to show that he could follow them. The egg was sitting at waist height to him and even though he knew the Assassin wanted him to touch it, he was very reluctant to do so.

He lifted his hand and held it above the egg, he then looked to his right at the Assassin and all she did was stare him down from behind her hood. Vaska turned back to look at the egg and allowed his hand to rest on the egg.

Nothing happened. They both waited a few seconds without making a sound; the egg remained motionless. Vaska was wondering what was going on, he felt as though the dragon inside was reaching out for him but yet it did nothing. He couldn't deny that he was a little bit relieved that it didn't hatch but when he moved his hand it revealed a crack in the side of the egg.

When the Assassin beside him tried to take a look, the fracture started to spread across the surface. They could both start to see the white snout of the dragon beginning to poke out of its shell. Using his eagle vision, Vaska could see the dragon through the shell trying to escape the confined space.

The Assassin looked over to Vaska and said, "Congratulations, looks like you're going to become a dragon rider." Excitement started to flow through her face after watching this historical event. "After all these years its finally hatching."

Vaska started to help the small creature get out of the shell by peeling parts of it back to expose the dragon to the warm air. The reptile gave a small squawk as it took its first breath of air. A small smile started to creep across Vaska's face as he reached out to touch the dragon followed by pain going through his arm as it locked up on his as though her was having a major cramp going through his muscles. He let out a small grunt of pain as he stepped back to lean against the wall to which the Assassin went up to him to check his hand.

His hand stung as she touched the large white circle that was on his palm that he assumed was a blister that was a result of when he touched the dragon. All that she did was smile after she inspected his palm. "Just wait here, I'll be right back." She told him in a very excited voice.

Vaska watched the Assassin run out of the room knowing that she was going to tell her superiors about what had happened. He started to wonder how she knew that he never approached the egg, he also had the feeling that she knew that it would hatch for him. The dragon was all of the way out of the shell at this point and tried to get over to him but was stuck on the pedestal and couldn't glide down and started making strange sounds at him.

The dragon was a solid white color except for red vein-like lines that ran up its legs and stopped at the shoulders and hips. It had a narrow shaped head that came to a point at its mouth and along the bottom of its lower jaw were a row of spikes that were like hooks on each side of the jaw. And on the back of its head were two straight horns that came out each side and were just a few centimeters in length. The dragon had an overall length of roughly one and a half feet and was eight inches tall at the shoulders.

Vaska went over to the dragon and reached out again to touch it but the dragon jumped onto his outstretched arm and climbed onto his shoulder. While doing so, the dragon tore holes in his sleeves from his talons and scratched up his arm as well. He didn't mind the dragon trying to climb up on him but he would need to get some leather shoulder pads for it. 'I'm going to be a rider.' He thought. His smile quickly went away when he remembered to what he was thinking about earlier. 'I'm going to be a rider.' He then quickly set the dragon back on the pedestal then turned to leave but saw three Assassins in the doorway, they were the Assassin whom was with him that he didn't know the name of and two others that were wearing brown robes and they were smiling at him and the dragon.

"So it's true." One of them said. Vaska recognized him, his name was Erlingr and he was a Assassin rank-four or the fourteenth level as others would call it. Erlingr then approached him and asked him, "What is your name child?"

Vaska bowed and gave the proper greeting and replied, "My name is Vaska son of Nicodemus."

Erlingr placed both of his hands on Vaska's shoulders and said in a very proud tone, "You have no idea how long many of us have waited for this day to come; I even feared that I might not have even lived to see it." He released Vaska then turned towards the dragon and tried to pet it but the dragon screeched in defiance causing Erlingr to pull his hand away.

It went quiet when Vaska went back to its side and allowed it to climb his shoulder causing more holes in his robes. The other Assassin in the brown robes then said in a hushed tone, "We would like to be able to keep this a secret to only be kept within the walls of Lifs Mor'ranr. The mad king doesn't even know about this egg being in Surda and if he found out that it hatched he would have his army here within the week."

"So how are we going to stop people from telling others outside of Lifs Mor'ranr?" Vaska questioned.

The Assassins looked at each other then back to Vaska then Erlingr said, "The Assassins before us had planned that if the egg hatched then we would completely seal off Lifs Mor'ranr so word about it couldn't spread."

"Wait a second," Vaska interrupted. "how do we know that the king doesn't know about this?" He pointed at the dragon on his shoulder. "People have come and gone from this place and have known about the egg so how do we know that nobody has said anything."

Erlingr then said in a very calm voice, "Everyone who has come here has been invited to visit this isn't just some port for traders. We have documented everyone who comes through and everyone who leaves along where they are going." He paused briefly then continued to explain. "If that person isn't found at the place that they claim to be going then they are perused to find out where they're really going and if they are trying to tell stories about certain things. And if there is evidence of someone trying to talk, they are silenced."

Vaska started to show how nervous he was getting because his arms were starting to shake a little along with sweat running down his face. "I understand, please forgive me I shouldn't have doubted you."

The woman Assassin then approached him and said, "It will take about week for certain people to leave willingly so we are going to have to ask that your dragon stays at your home until then. After that it may travel around with you and we will also have a larger home for you in about two weeks so that you both can live comfortably when the dragon gets bigger."

After she was done Erlingr said to him, "Other thing will be done for you in time but for now you must return home; I will also send Takara with you so she can help hide your friend." The female Assassin then stepped forward and bowed to Erlingr.

'So her name is Takara.' Vaska thought to himself. He was glad that he was finally able to go back to his home.

They were able to get an open crate to put the dragon into and a cloth for Vaska to cover it up so nobody would see it. The only problem that they worried about was if it started to make loud sounds but were relieved when it kept quiet for most of way.

Vaska lived around a mile away from the town as most Assassins his rank did. As an Assassin progressed through the ranks, they were given better living conditions and were able to live closer to the center of the town. And once someone reached rank seven, or mercenary, they were stationed in different cities across Alagaësia, but it would take years before he could reach that rank.

Once the house came into view, they could see someone at the door waiting on him. That's when Vaska remembered that Rode was going to meet him that night. He asked Takara what to do, she told him that he needed to send him away.

When they approached him, Rode gave the proper greeting to Takara then spoke to Vaska, "I thought that you were going to meet me in two hours."

"I'm sorry, I would just rather go to sleep. Sorry for keeping you waiting."

Rode's eyes went to the crate that was in Vaska arms. "What do you have in there?" He asked.

Takara then stepped in and said, "I'm having him do work for me. This is the equipment he needs and you are not allowed to talk to him about it."

"Yes ma'am." Rode replied. He said goodbye to Vaska and left to go back to his home that he shared with his uncle. Takara then did the same and left Vaska to himself.

He entered the small empty house and allowed his dragon out of the cage. It looked at its surroundings then began to run around the room, knocking over some items that were low to the ground. It stopped after making a few laps around the room and sat down in the center of the room and stared at Vaska as though nothing happened. Vaska groaned at the mess it made in the living room and started to clean up after it.

His home only had three rooms, the living room that doubled as a kitchen, his room, and his father's room. His dad was a rank eleven Assassin and was in Teirm and wouldn't be back for a year and a half. Even though his dad was a high ranked Assassins their home was located where it was because Vaska was the only one living there for months at a time.

After Vaska was done cleaning, he went over to the kitchen to make himself something to eat. He boiled some water and made a stew for himself and got some strips of meat for the dragon whom ate it within seconds.

The dragon started to nibble at his boot while he ate his food. "What do you want?" He questioned, receiving a squawk from the dragon in response. He could feel something pushing at the back of his mind again, this time he could feel the presence coming from the dragon as an emotion. It was still hungry. "I just fed you." It stared back at him, waiting to see if it would get fed.

Vaska went back outside to get some salted meat from a shed that him and his dad stored food. He grabbed three strips of salted pork and brought it to the dragon inside. The little predator ripped apart the meat while Vaska sat down to continue eating his stew in peace; he was going to have to find a way to budget his money to buy more food. Anyone who was an Assassin in training was provided a place to sleep and food allowances along with some money each month for other expenses but it wasn't much money and his allowances only covered his food cost. He was sure that he would be given more money for food within a few days once they were ready to reveal that the dragon hatched.

He finished his food and washed his bowl in a water bucket and cleaned up after himself. He started to feel tired and went into his room while being followed by the dragon that wasn't even as tall as his knee.

His room consisted of his bed, a dresser, an empty weapon rack that his dad built for him, and two stands for him to put his robes on along for keeping a spare set of them. He got undressed and changed into a set of clothes to sleep in and saw the dragon lying at the end of the bed where his feet would be.

"I need to come up with a name for you." He stated as he crawled into the bed and pulled the sheets over him. The dragon watch him rest his head on his pillow and stare up at the ceiling; it then walked over to him and laid down on his chest. "How about 'Burden' or 'Unnecessary'? Those sound fitting." He said jokingly.

His thoughts drifted to his friends and those who lived around him like what Rode's reaction would be when he finds out that he's a dragon rider. Then he thought about what would happen when his father would find out, he was sure that word would be sent to certain people about this. And what of his future training; they would push him farther than anyone else and expect more. Then the dreadful thought returned to his mind as he ran his hand down the neck of his dragon: When will they send him to assassinate Galbatorix?

**If you have any questions or comments please ask and they will be answered via PM or I will leave a response in the next chapter.**


	4. Chapter 4

**This one was a little bit later than y'all have gotten in the past but it's a bit longer too. I've also decided to put in some U.S. Military traditions into this story; the tradition is a bit obvious but I want you to guess which branch It's from. Can you get it right?**

Vaska spent the next three days following the same schedule that he had set up for himself: wake up before dawn to go running, then having a small meal, followed by reading at the shrine, then he would train with Rode and some of the other Assassins; after that he would eat a light lunch and relax with the others for a few hours followed by doing exercise to build upper-body strength. Once all of that was done, he was finally able to go home to his dragon who would be eagerly waiting for him at the door.

He still didn't have a fitting name for it yet and he couldn't even tell if it was a male or a female dragon. Vaska could feel his sleep cycle starting to change because of the said dragon. It would constantly wake him during the night because it was either hungry or would try to wrestle with him. Vaska thought that the dragon most likely was sleeping during the day while he was gone and wanted to spend time with him when he got home. He had to start taking small naps during the day to compensate the lack of sleep he got during the night.

On the third day, he went back to the shrine to view the results of field day with Rode; they both went into one of the large rooms and saw several different pieces of leather that showed who got promoted to which rank. Several different people of all different ranks came and went to find out if they were ready to advance through the brotherhood. They both were able to find the list of people in their rank and scanned the piece of leather to find their names. Rode pointed out his name on the surface and ran his finger along it to the far left side and stopped at the results column which showed him that he passed with a score of one hundred and fifty-five points. To get promoted to Initiate, a recruit had to get a total score of one hundred and forty points out of a possible two hundred. Vaska congratulated him with a pat on the back then went to find his name. He ran his finger down the list of names until it showed, 'Vaska son of Nicodemus' then he ran it to the left until it showed his score.

'142/200, Passed' Is what it showed. Vaska didn't know how to respond to this; neither of them expected him to get promoted after what happened during field day. Rode patted him on the back and said, "What did I tell you?" Vaska brushed his hand off of his back and walked away from him, not wanting the praise. "I was right wasn't I?" He told him.

"You were lucky." Vaska responded.

Rode laughed, "Come on, let's celebrate with the others before the ceremony."

Half of the recruits that went through field day with them got promoted. They met with the other two after looking for them for a few minutes. One of them was named Amalia, she stood around Vaska's height and had short dirty-blonde hair. The other was Manu; he was the one who finished first but was very humble about it.

The four of them went out to get some drinks together and gamble some of their spare money with each other and by the end of it, Vaska had earned a small amount money from Amalia and Rode. After spending a few hours having fun, they had to do some of their own assignments that were given them for the month; Vaska was assigned to help tend the horses in the stables followed by delivering incoming letters to their respective recipients.

He was able to sneak in some time to go back to his home to check on the dragon and to make sure it had food and water. The major downside of keeping it inside of his house was that when it had to use the bathroom it just went wherever it was; It took him quite some time to clean the house every time he got the chance.

After he was done cleaning, he decided to take a small nap on his living room furniture before he had to go back to the shrine in two hours. He was lying down with his hood over his head, he didn't even care when the dragon jumped onto him. Vaska could sense that it wanted to go outside with him but he just ignored it.

He slept for about thirty minutes but woke up when he heard a knock at his door followed by the dragon squawking loudly in response. Vaska shot up and tried to quite the dragon. It just kept on making noises followed by even more knocking. He quickly grabbed the dragon and took it to his room. "I need you to shut up, nobody's supposed to know about you." He told it. That still didn't work; Vaska decided to try to tell it the same way the dragon would communicate to him. He reached his mind out to it and could feel its coconscious connected to his, then he gave a mental image of silence and to his surprise it worked.

The knocking was then followed by a voice, "Vaska I need to talk to you; and could you come quickly? I have something for you."

Vaska left the dragon in his room and closed the door. He then walked to the door and opened it slightly to see who it was. He was relieved when he saw it was Erlingr with several books in his hands; Vaska opened the door and greeted his superior. "Good afternoon _Quejne_ Erlingr." He said which was the greeting to some one of his rank. When he was taught the greeting he was told the _'Quejne'_ was the word for 'Assassin' in the Ancient Language.

Erlingr greeted him as well then entered the room and set the books on one of the tables. "So, where's the dragon?" He asked.

"It's in one of the other rooms." Vaska told him. "I put it in there because it was being too loud when you knocked."

"That's good but let's just be glad that it was me instead of someone else." Erlingr then started to spread the books across the table, fifteen of them in total with various thicknesses. "Do you know what these are?"

Vaska looked at the covers but there were no titles on them and he couldn't see the spines on them. "No."

"I want you to bring your dragon out and then I will tell you."

Vaska walked back to his room and opened the wooden door. As It opened, the dragon ran through the door then walked up to Erlingr and stared at the familiar face. "So what are these books?"

Erlingr, without a word, picked up one of them and sat down as he opened one of the pages and began to read. "It has been two weeks since I arrived at this Elf city they call 'Ellesméra'. They gave me residence in a home that was formed from trees, not wooden planks but trees that were grown into the shape of a house. The only thing stranger than the land are the people with their strict traditions and greetings. I was also told that tomorrow Palau and I would start training to become 'Dragon and Rider'; they talk to me as though I were a child and expect me to act like I was the wisest man alive. Sometime I wonder If I should have refused the contract to go to Indonesia in the first place."

Vaska looked through the other book and saw that they were all written in the same format as the passage that Erlingr said and each book had a name written on the inside cover. 'Nicolas Vespasien' was the name written. "These are Nicolas' journals aren't they?"

Erlingr set the book back down with the others and said, "We felt that it was right for you to have and read them. Hopefully this will help you so you can have someone to relate to." Their attention went to the dragon when it hopped onto the furniture next to Erlingr and started to smell his clothes. "I can see that its grown since I last saw it."

It was true, the dragon had grown by several inches and weighed a bit more. "Yes, it won't stop eating while I'm here." Vaska joked.

"Do you have a name for it yet?" He asked Vaska.

"I can't think of one and I don't even know if it's a boy or a girl."

"Well I hope you can find one for it." Erlingr stood up then said, "I want you to read some of these, perhaps he has some advice that will help you."

"I will do that _Quejne_." Vaska replied. "Is there anything else you need to tell me?"

"No that's all." He said. "I will see you tonight during your promotion." Erlingr then left the house, leaving Vaska to get ready.

Vaska took all of the journals and set them on the dresser inside of his room and took off the robes that he wore that day and put on his spare set of robes that he washed yesterday. After he was dressed he decided to eat before he went, so he went to the kitchen and got some dried beef and started chewing on it as he got food out for the dragon. Once he was done eating he went into his bathroom with a bucket of water that he got from a well outside and washed his face and wetted his hair down. He felt as though he was ready to go and made sure that the dragon wasn't going to be whining for more food before he left.

The sun was just starting to set as he closed the door to his home and he wouldn't be returning until late at night. The leaves were starting to change colors because of the upcoming autumn; people have already started to prepare for winter by getting more clothes and hunting deer. Vaska was starting to do the same by working for the food and supplies because he didn't have the time to hunt in the woods.

Vaska arrived in town after walking for around twenty minutes and made his way to one of the seven towers that were scattered throughout _Lifs Mor'ranr _where the ceremony will take place. The one that he was assigned was located right by the river and had a large view of the East side of the town. It was three stories tall with an open area that held a bell at the top and was made out of brown bricks. When he arrived he could see Rode, Amalia, and Manu standing at the entrance, waiting on him.

Vaska greeted the three of them and decided to talk for a little while before they were allowed to enter. Amalia decided that she would start the conversation. "So Vaska, I saw that you passed by two points."

"Yeah I don't know how that happened." Vaska had an idea as to why they gave him a curve to his score but he kept his mouth shut about his theory. "What was your score again?"

"One hundred and sixty-five." She stated proudly. "Congratulations anyway."

They talked about scores, field day, and their own experiences for a little while until they decided to move onto another topic that Manu brought up about the shrine. "Have any of you went to the back area of the shrine in the past few days?"

"No." Rode answered.

"Didn't they shut that part down for construction?" Amalia said. "I've heard that their redoing the egg chamber."

"Well I hope that the future rider isn't kept from it because someone wanted a different colored wall." Manu said.

Vaska tried to change the subject again so he wouldn't have to talk about the egg. "Well this is exciting, we're all going to become Initiates, we're going to get our own hidden blade." He was able to get them talking about what they were excited for with their new rank. Rode was talking about how he was going to be able to have a small home of his own while Manu wanted to be able to start combat training. Amalia was excited about getting her first weapon and how it made her feel like a true Assassin.

They all spoke for a few minutes until they heard the tower's bell start to ring, telling them that it was time to enter. Following procedures, they all got into a straight line and walked inside while looking straight forward without making a sound. The inside of the tower was empty except for a few torches and a spiral staircase that led up to the very top where they would have their small ceremony.

The only sounds that could be heard within the building were from their steps as they walked up the stairs. Vaska could feel his heart starting to beat faster with each step he took toward being an Initiate.

When they reached the top, they walked through the door and were greeted by three other Assassins that were standing behind an open fire that was contained in the center of the floor. The bell that had just finished ringing was suspended above them ten feet in the air. "Welcome." The Assassin in the center said to them. The four of them stood on the opposite end of the fire while keeping their eyes straight ahead gave the proper greeting at the same time. "Tonight is an important night for the four of you; all of you have pass the trial from Recruit to Initiate and thus are each presented with entrance to a very secret order." The other two Assassins each reached down and picked up an iron rod that was half way in the fire. The rod had a small stamp at the end and was glowing red. "I need all of you to extend your left hand in front of you."

The four of them removed their left glove and held out their arms and awaited the pain that was to come. Vaska was very glad that the white scar that the dragon gave him was on his right hand, otherwise he might have had to explain where it came from.

Rode and Amalia were the first to have their hands branded and they both were fighting the urge to scream in pain as the iron was pressed into their palm. After holding the iron on their skin for two seconds, the Assassins removed it and allowed them to inspect the new scar then walked in front of Vaska and Manu.

Vaska clenched his other fist and gritted his teeth right before the metal touched his palm and when it did, his legs started to buckle from the sudden pain. And just like Rode, he didn't dare to make a sound, he just stood there and handled the pain on his own.

When they removed the iron, he inspected his palm and saw that they branded them with the Assassin's symbol that resembled an arrow head but it was incomplete; all that it had was the upside down 'V' and didn't have any of the other details underneath it. Their attention went back to the Assassin whom was in charge of the ceremony when he spoke, "The pain that you have right now may be intense but that symbol shows what you're willing to sacrifice to be a part of us. And once you make your complete your first contract we will finish the symbol. It will show that you have completed your training and have earned your place amongst the rest of us."

The other two Assassins then walked behind them and grabbed four cloths that were rolled up then walked back to their original positions. They then took one of the rolled up cloths in each hand and unrolled them to reveal that they were leather armor for their shoulders that showed their status. They strapped them into place on Rode and Amalia first then onto him and Manu.

The brown leather went onto bother shoulders and four inches down his arms and was worn over his robes. It wasn't one solid piece, it had three parts to it: one piece for each shoulder and a connector that went across the upper part of his chest and the upper part of his back which had to be tied tightly to each shoulder piece.

"You each now carry the rank of Initiate." The Assassin told them. "You represent the order wherever you go and with every action you make. "

Vaska was filled with joy when he heard those words, 'I'm one step closer.' He said to himself in his mind.

The three Assassins then went back to their positions and in unison said to the four of them, "Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember,"

"Nothing is true." Rode, Amalia, Manu, and Vaska said together.

"Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember,"

"Everything is permitted."

"We work in the dark to serve the light."

Then all seven said at once, "We are Assassins."

"Congratulations to all of you. Now the four of you must go down to the river to receive your weapons." The Assassin in the center told them. The four of them bowed then turned to leave the tower.

They exited the tower and started patting each other on the back, having a small celebration as they walked to the river. The four of them starting to talk about how much it hurt to get branded on their hands and were inspecting one another's palm to compare it to their own.

The streets seemed less crowed than they normally were to Vaska; they normally were on the nights that people were promoted. It seemed that way because out of all of the people on the streets, none of them were wearing their robes; at any given time during the day, about half of the people on the street were wearing their robes.

When they made it to the river, they met up with the other newly promoted Initiates. In total, there were about twenty of them; they all had their promotion ceremony earlier than them because they did promotions by rank then by class. They weren't the only ones by the river; across from them were the rest of those who have been promoted with ranks from Assistant to Assassin Rank One.

While the four of them were conversing with the others, one of the higher ranked Assassins came up to the large group and addressed the whole crowd. "Listen," He called out to all of them. "although you have been promoted to your rank, none of us shall recognize you as such until you go through initiation and receive your blades." Then all at once every Assassin besides the Initiates lined up in two rows with enough room for someone to pass between them and faced the person across from them. "Each of you will go through in between us and because you received your leather shoulder pads, we will test to see if your armor works and only then will you receive your weapons."

The Assassin then went to the far back of the lines of Assassins and picked up a hidden blade and a short sword and waited for the first person to go through.

A minute pass before the first Initiate went through. When he passed the first two, they both raised their fist and at the same time, punched him in the shoulders. He grunted from the strike then took a step forward, followed by another two punches in the shoulders.

As the first one went through, several others started to line up and start to go through. Vaska and Rode decided to go through next to each other in line. They both had heard that you only got hit by people that were a higher rank and that they did this for every rank; so the higher up someone was, then the less that they were hit.

Rode went in before him and tried his best not to show his pain. Vaska waited until Rode was three sets ahead of him before he took his first step and received his first set of punches. The leather didn't help at all because it only went down his arms a short distance and these people weren't exactly aiming for it. He took his next step and went through the same thing then took the next and then the next. After taking the first twenty sets of punches, he fell to one knee in the gravel and clenched his arms in pain. He felt lucky that this was only for those who were promoted so there were only around one hundred and fifty of them instead of the five hundred Assassins that lived in their town.

He still had about fifty steps to take so he started to push himself to keep walking. After fifteen more steps Rode went down and Vaska was able to catch up to him. "You got to keep moving." He told him as he helped him up and kept walking. Each punch seemed worse than the last but he kept walking but stopped when a though popped into his mind.

He stopped for a little bit to loosen the ties on his shoulder pads so that they came down by a few more inches and covered the area that he kept on getting hit. When he took then next step it still hurt but the leather took dampened the pain. He looked at the men who punched him and saw that they didn't care that he adjusted his armor because it was supposed to protect him. Vaska passed on the information to Rode and helped him loosen the leather. They both eventually made it to the end and were greeted by the man from earlier.

The Assassin gave a short sword and a hidden blade to Rode and helped him put it on his left wrist. He then did the same for Vaska; he tied the sword's sheath around his belt and gave the sword to him. It was a simple blade that was rather plain looking except for the Assassin symbol at its hilt. The man then tied the leather bracer which held the hidden blade around Vaska's left wrist.

After it was adjusted to fit him, the Assassin pulled a wire from the front of the device and tied it around a ring then placed it on Vaska's middle finger. Vaska pulled his hand back slightly and could feel the wire resisting but when he gave it a little more force, a nine inch blade shot out from his wrist. He ran his finger down the blade and felt that it was already sharpened and was more than capable to kill someone.

He flicked his wrist again and the blade retracted back into the mechanism. Rode was already waiting for him to finish and was holding his arms. "Ok Vaska now it's my turn."

"What do you mean?" He asked followed by being punched in the arm by Rode. "Hey I'm still hurting here."

"So am I."

"Ok now it's my turn to get you."

"Go for it."

Vaska cocked his arm back and punched him in the arm with all of his strength and ended up hurting his arm in the process. They both stumbled in pain and let out a laugh at each other. "OK I think that I'll take that mead you offered the other day." Vaska said.

"Ok, let's see what's still open." Rode replied as they walked back into town next to each other.


	5. Chapter 5

**Sorry for the delay, my family went camping for a week and i didn't have my laptop. Also, the promotion ceremony from last chapter originated in the United States Marine Corps.**

Vaska woke up to the sound of the dragon knocking his short sword off of the weapon rack. He rubbed his eyes, "I told you not to mess with that." He said as he got out of bed to put the sword back on the wooden rack.

The sun was already shining brightly through the window and into the room. Vaska stretched as he left his room while being followed by the dragon. Its been eight days since it hatched and the dragon was close to being twice the size it was at birth.

He was running low on meat to feed the dragon but he would be able to get more food later on that day.

Over the past few days, posters were being placed throughout the town stating that there would be a town meeting today. Vaska talked to Erlingr to see if it was about him. The Assassin said that it was and that they would help transport the dragon in the morning to the meeting which was to be held in the market because it had the largest open area.

It was still several hours until the meeting would start but Vaska and several others had to be there to help with setting up. He was expecting whomever Erlingr sent to help him to arrive within the hour so he spent the time he had getting dressed and reading one of Nicolas' journals.

Vaska wasn't very far in the first journal; from what he read, Nicolas started this one within the first few days that they arrived in Alagaësia. He read about his thoughts about their mission to recovery the three pieces of Eden and Nicolas' part that he played in it.

Vaska was sitting down on the couch while he was reading; sitting next to him was the dragon whom was resting its head and neck on his leg while staring at the book. He could feel the dragon's curiosity about what he was doing because it was relaying the emotion to his mind.

"I'm reading." He stated.

_Confusion_.

Vaska turned the journal to the dragon and pointed at the hand-written text on the pages. "This is Nicolas' journal; he wrote about his life as a dragon rider for others to read." The dragon just sat its head down on Vaska's leg and listened as he read aloud. "'The Elves are much tougher than they appear; several of us Assassins have volunteered to spar against them and each of us have failed. What used to be a test of whom is the 'best fighter' had devolved into a test to see whom can survive the longest to which I have proven to be the best only because I'm able to keep my opponent at a distance with my whip.'"

He read for a little while longer then paused for a little while and set down the journal so he could look outside to see if anyone was coming for him. Once he was satisfied that he still had time, he pick up the book and turned the front cover to look back at the signature on the inside. 'Nicolas Vespasian' He read. Vaska then took a moment to do the same with all of them that he kept in his room. He felt special that he was the owner of such valuable pieces of history but then noticed something about the other fourteen that was different than the one that Erlingr first read to him and that he was currently reading.

All of the other ones were numbered on the inside from one to fourteen, unlike the last one. He picked out the first one in the series, which had a solid green color to it, and read the first page.

_'Hello,' _It said. _'If you are reading this than that means that the egg I entrusted with the Assassin's has hatched and it also means that the riders have fallen to the foresworn.'_ Vaska kept reading as he took a seat on his bed, followed by the dragon jumping onto it and sitting beside him. _'These fourteen journals have been kept locked away and were told to be given to whomever the egg hatched for; inside each of them I've written everything about a dragon rider's training that I was allowed to. It will give you instruction in several different areas such as flight, aerial combat, and magic.'_

_ "_Well that's just great." He said to the dragon on his right. "Sounds like he wants me to ride you when you're older." It just squawked at him in response to the statement.

_'The first thing that you want to do is give your dragon a name if you haven't already.'_

'Finally' Vaska thought.

_'If you haven't given the dragon a name yet, I put a small list of names of different dragons on the fifth page.'_

Vaska marked where he was reading with his finger then flipped to the fifth page. It had two columns of five names each. "It's time to finally come up with a name for you." Vaska said to the dragon who just stood up and listened to him. Vaska then started to read off the names on the list, "How about 'Agaravel'?" The dragon shook it's head from side to side while maintaining eye contact with him. "Ok what about 'Bid'Daum'?" He received the same response as last time.

He went through the list receiving the same answers until he got to one that it actually liked. "You're making this difficult on me you know that right? Ok here's the next one, how about "Epsilon'?"

This time it responded it responded with a squawk followed by it sitting down and snapping at the air along with sending an image of joy to Vaska's mind.

"So you like. Ok you're new name is Epsilon." He said then continued to read from where he left off on the first page.

_'When Palau had the egg, I entrusted it to the Assassins so that if our order had more riders than we would have more influence throughout Alagaësia.' _

'Wait a second.' He paused then turned to Epsilon. "It turns out that Nicolas' dragon is your mother." Vaska was surprised but the reptile was contempt with the fact.

_'Only myself and a few others were told about the egg which wasn't the best decision that I've made in my life but now I'm glad that I did it. The foresworn have already began attacking our riders and their dragons and are succeeding to our surprise. If we don't find a way to kill them soon then all that we've accomplished will be lost which is why I'm glad that I gave the egg to the Assassins in secret.'_

_ Thump, thump, thump;_ the sound of knocking echoed throughout the house. Vaska closed the book and set it back down on his dresser and went to his front door and slowly peeked out the window to see who it was. He couldn't tell who the man was because he was wearing brown robes and had his hood over his head.

Vaska made sure that Epsilon was out of sight and quite before he opened the front door.

It was Vaughn; he stood a good two heads taller than him and had short black hair and looked to be at least in his late thirties. "Hello Vaska." He said.

"Hello Instructor Vaughn." Vaska greeted. "Did Erlingr send you?"

Vaughn put his finger over his lips, telling Vaska to stop talking. He then reached down to his left and picked up a wooden box that Vaska didn't see before then stepped into the house. "So where is it?"

"I have Epsilon in my room."

"So that's what you named it." Vaughn responded as he set down the box and followed Vaska to his room.

Epsilon was sitting on the bed and let out a loud hiss when he saw Vaughn behind Vaska. "It's ok." Vaska said. "He's here to help us get you to town without being seen."

Epsilon sent another emotion to Vaska, but it was caution that he felt instead of the regular sense of approval or disapproval that he normally got from the dragon.

After only a small amount of reluctance, Epsilon went into the crate and was carried off by Vaska.

They both left the house right afterwards and made their way down the path towards _Lifs Mor'ranr. _He had to stop several times because Epsilon gained a lot of weight over the past few days and the wooden box weighed quite a bit on its own. Vaughn helped carry it after awhile until they reached the market which was still being set up for later that day. Most of the work was being done by paid laborers but there were still some low ranked Assassins that volunteered to help. They were setting up a stage that was fifteen feet long and eight feet wide and stood four feet above the ground so whomever would be speaking could be seen easily. He was directed by Vaughn to a seven foot tall tent that had tanned hide covering it so nobody could see inside. It also had signs on it that said 'Keep Out' along with having a guard at its entrance. Vaughn had to talk to the guard so that she knew who they were then she allowed them both to go in along with Epsilon who was still being quiet inside of the crate because of Vaska giving it mental commands.

The inside of the tent surprised Vaska; It had cushions laying on top the dirt ground, food, water, and furniture, all of which he assumed was for the dragon. "Can I let Epsilon out now?" Vaska asked Vaughn in a whisper in case anyone was within hearing range.

Vaughn set down the crate as he replied, "Yes but you need to stay here and keep it quiet."

Vaska walked up to the crate and quietly opened it to let Epsilon out. The dragon jumped out and immediately started to observe the new environment.

While Epsilon walked around the tent, Vaughn left the tent and went to talk to the guard, leaving Vaska to eat some of the food they had out for him. He made himself some small sandwiches out of some bread and different meats and cheeses followed by having a cup of water. Once Epsilon was done exploring, it decided to nibble at the raw pork that was in a plate on the ground then take a nap on one of the cushions at the back corner of the tent.

"Vaska, come out here." Vaughn said as he poked his head into the tent.

"Yes sir." He responded. When he stepped out, he was greeted by the guard.

"Hello, I'm Novice Romana; I'm one of Instructor Vaughn's students." She looked like she was about three years older than Vaska and she was wearing dark green robes without a shoulder cape and with a white blouse. Romana, being a fourth ranked Assassin, already had a good arsenal weapons; she had a single hidden blade on her right arm, a saber on her left side, a crossbow on her back, and a hand and a half sword on her right hip.

Vaska just shook her hand and exchanged greetings. "I'm Initiate Vaska. How are you doing?"

"I'm doing alright." She said.

Vaughn walked up to her side and said, "Romana scored the highest out of all the assistants that were promoted a week ago." He was very boastful about students from what Vaska heard from others. Vaughn was also known as the best teacher for hand-to-hand combat and was willing to teach anyone that was willing to learn but was very brutal with his teaching methods.

Romana rolled her eyes at the comment and said, "He likes to brag a lot about us if you can't tell. He also enjoys torturing but after being his student for a few years you get used to it."

"Well I hope when I get promoted to assistant in about a year or two I get to become a student to someone like Vaughn." Vaska complimented.

"If you both will excuse me I have to go." Vaughn said to them both before he walked away to help with the stage.

Once Vaughn was out of earshot he asked Romana, "I've heard that he's a great combat instructor, is it true?"

All that she did was take two steps back and said, "Try to attack me."

Vaska debated it in his mind for a few seconds on if he should or shouldn't do so but curiosity got the better of him. He took a fighting stance with his legs spread shoulder-width apart and both of his hands in fist at eye level. He started to stutter step toward Romana who just kept eye contact and didn't even take a fighting stance like he did. Vaska closed the distance and threw a single punch at her but she backed up a step as he did so. Then he tried to do a quick jab at her face but she quickly brought he hand to block it.

The next thing that he tried doing was to deliver a kick to her head. As he brought his leg up and made an attack, Romana ducked underneath his leg and came up behind him, grabbed him by the lower end of his hood, then pulled him down to the ground while choking him from the pressure on his neck.

As he hit the ground, she grabbed his arm and put him into a wrist-lock while pinning his head to the ground with her knee. "Ok, ok I give up." Vaska pleaded.

"You sure you don't want to try again?" She said while laughing.

"No."

After Vaska picked himself off the ground and stretched his wrist, he and Romana both just stood around and talked with each other about their own experiences during training and various ways they were taught. They would laugh at different stories that they've had about themselves or others and just enjoyed the other's company.

Romana then started to ask different questions to him about the meeting to see if he knew anything about it. Vaska just said that he couldn't say what they were going to do; if she wasn't guarding the tent and saw him go inside then he would just claim ignorance. Even if she pulled rank on him he still wouldn't say anything and tell her that he was ordered not to talk about it by Vaughn.

To his relief she accepted his previous answer and stopped asking questions. Vaska asked if she wanted him to get her anything to eat or drink from inside the tent to which she refused.

After around half an hour of talking, Vaska could sense Epsilon waking up because of their mental connection and decided to check on the dragon.

He told Romana that he needed to take care of some work inside the tent and went in to check on Epsilon to see if the dragon needed any more food or water. He refilled the water and didn't need to put out more food for Epsilon to his surprise.

It was now a few hours into midday and the meeting would be starting in about an hour. People were already starting to arrive and spent the spare time buying supplies in the market.

Erlingr stopped by a while later after speaking to Romana and told him what was going to happen; he said that Master Assassin Edom would be the one to make the presentation and that he would be the one to introduce him and Epsilon to the towns people. He also said to him that Edom would make a short speech about the riders and their importance and then he will call for Vaska; Erlingr then told him that he would walk out of the tent with Epsilon on his shoulder and to the stage.

Vaska asked what else would happen but was told that It would be a surprise and that he would just have to wait. Vaska then asked Erlingr about the journals and if anyone else has read them. He was told that Nicolas told the elders during his time to keep them locked away until the egg hatched for someone and that they would help that person learn what the Assassins couldn't teach.

Erlingr left a few minutes later to help with final preparations, leaving Vaska to prepare himself for what was about to take place. While pacing around the tent, Vaska was starting to get nervous as time went on. He peeked out of the tent and saw that Romana was still standing at the entrance and that most people were already taking their seats. Just by looking at the crowd, anyone could tell that only around two-thirds of the citizens showed up. He looked at some of the people that he recognized and knew that none of them would look at him the same way; they would see him as a dragon rider and not an Assassin.

Then he looked at the stage and saw Master Assassin Edom talking to Erlingr and Vaughn. Edom held himself in a very professional manner and was wearing freshly cleaned, pure white robes and he looked like he was in his fifties. He fully expected Erlingr to be up there because of his rank but didn't expect for Vaughn to be standing on his left.

"Good afternoon everyone." Edom addressed the crowd of around four hundred. He began by thanking everyone for coming and thanked the market's vendors for letting use the area.

As he was talking, Vaska went back into the tent and adjusted his new shoulder pad so that Epsilon could be perched on it. The dragon wouldn't be able to do that for much longer because of how fast it was growing.

Vaska could hear Edom's speech about the rise of the dragon riders, telling them about the bonding of humans or elves to dragons. The story went on to Nicolas and the eleven other Assassins and how they came into Alagaësia.

His time was coming up. Vaska told Epsilon to get onto his shoulder and they both waited on Edom.

That's when Romana poked her head into the tent and said, "Are you rea-." She stopped when she saw the white and red dragon on Vaska's shoulder. Vaska didn't know what to say or even if he should have worried because she was about to find out anyways when he went out on stage. Epsilon just squawked at Romana and stared curiously at her. She then looked away from them both and apologized, "I'm sorry I shouldn't have looked in here."

"Its fine." He quickly replied. "This is why I'm here."

"I was still told not to look inside."

Vaska was about to respond but heard Edom talk about the egg that was held at the shrine. Romana then left the tent completely, leaving them both alone again.

"Today, I would like to introduce to everyone here a very special person." Edom shouted out so everyone could hear him.

'Well its time.' Vaska thought to himself. He and Epsilon both looked at each other; Vaska had a feeling that the dragon knew what was going on and was glad to know that the attention wasn't going to be mainly focused towards him.

"Vaska," Edom's voice boomed, "son of Nicodemus."


	6. Chapter 6

**Well this is going to be the last chapter for about two months because in tomorrow I ship off for Coast Guard boot camp. The story will continue when I get back so don't worry.**

There were small murmurs from a few people throughout the entire crowd as he stepped out of the cover of the tent and into the open. Vaska nervously looked at the civilians as he stepped onto the stage and walked up next to Master Edom. Everyone's eyes were fixed on Vaska and Epsilon.

"This is Vaska." Edom addressed to the crowd. "The dragon choose to hatch for him and now he is the first free dragon rider in Alagaësia over eighty years!" A few people started to clap steadily, followed by others joining in until the entire crowd was cheering for him.

Vaska hated the attention he was getting from everyone; he preferred it when he was just another face in the crowd. Epsilon had the exact opposite attitude; the dragon's joy could be felt by Vaska as it let out a small roar on his shoulder.

Once the applause subsided, Edom said to Vaska, "It's a great honor that has been granted to you. While you are still going to be treated as any other Assassin, you'll be looked up to by many others within the order."

Edom then turned to Erlingr and cocked his head back which served as a signal for him to go and retrieve something. As Erlingr left, Vaughn walked up and took his place beside Edom and said to Vaska, "Along with the new title as a dragon rider, it has been decided that you will receive an honorary promotion the third rank." Vaughn projected to the audience as well and received an applause.

From one of his pockets, Vaughn pulled out two circular metal pins that were both half the size of his palm. They had the Assassin's emblem and underneath the crest at the bottom were three stars which showed his rank as an assistant. Vaughn showed the pin to the crowd so they could witness Vaska's promotion and pinned one onto the top left shoulder pad and the other on his right shoulder pad. They had to move Epsilon over to his other shoulder when they pinned it to his left shoulder. He looked down at each of them and saw that they were centered and were pinned parallel to his collar.

Once he was done pinning the ranks onto Vaska, Vaughn stepped back and said, "You now carry the rank of Assistant. You represent the order wherever you go and with every action you make. Where other men blindly follow the truth, remember,"

"Nothing is true." Vaska replied.

"Where other men are limited by morality or law, remember,"

"Everything is permitted."

"We work in the dark to serve the light." Vaughn said not only to Vaughn, but to the crowd as well.

"We are Assassins." 'Only two more left.' Vaska thought to himself. After that, Master Edom motioned for him to say something to the people.

Vaska turned to them and cleared his throat while thinking of what to say to them. "First I would like to thank everyone for coming out here today." Epsilon could feel his nervousness and was full of amusement. "I never expected something like this to ever happen to me; I've only read about dragons and riders and I didn't even expect to be alive when Epsilon hatched," He gestured towards the dragon, "and yet I'm the one that was chosen. The only thing that I can hope for is that I will be able to just as capable as any of the riders before me."

He received an applause as he took a step back followed by Erlingr running back onto the stage with a six-foot long wooden case about eight inches wide. Erlingr walked up to the three of them and set the case on the ground before opening it. "Along with being promoted to the third rank, you are to receive your next weapon for training."

Vaska couldn't see what it was from his angle and was expecting something like a sword at first like most others got but wasn't disappointed by what he pulled out of the case.

It was the bo staff that he found at the black smith's shop during field day. He was handed it by Erlingr and ran his hand down the metal staff; it was just as he remembered it, it had carvings and was painted to make it look like wood form a distance and also had the twelve inch blade at the top but noticed that the spear head was screwed into the staff, not embedded. It also came with a sling that held the staff and went around his back so he could carry it; after giving it a twirl, he put it in the sling then strapped it to his back with the help of Erlingr.

After some closing words from Edom, some people left to do other things while the rest of the people came up and greeted Vaska and Epsilon and to congratulate him as well. He kept Epsilon close to him at all times either on his shoulder or by his side while sensing mixed feelings from the dragon about different people that came to greet him.

He talked to and shook hands with many of the different people; they would conversed with him and ask him questions about dragons as though he had been a dragon rider for all of his life. Some of the children whom were there asked if they could pet Epsilon like if the dragon was his pet, much to the dragon's distaste.

"Could I have a word with you?" Vaska turned around and saw that it was Vaughn who spoke to him.

Vaska apologized to the person he was speaking to and said, "I'm sorry about that; what is it?"

"Some of my students were just recently sent to Teirm and will be staying there on a two-year contract. Master Edom was in charge of getting you a suitable teacher and choose me."

Vaska felt amazed that he was chosen to be one of Vaughn's students and had a joyful smile crawl across his face. "Thank you, I would be honored to serve under you."

His smile quickly disappeared; Vaughn closed the distance between them and whispered in his ear with a hateful tone. "Edom was wrong. You're just a spoiled boy that's getting special treatment because of a hundred year old egg given to us by someone who was just as arrogant as you. If you think that you will get the same treatment from me then I swear to you I will take your robes, your blade, and you're rank from you."

Vaska saw that his eyes were fixed on him and could tell that he was very sincere with his words. "I will not fail you sir."

"Did I ask for you to open your fucking mouth?" Vaughn said in a much louder tone. "From now on if you're going to train under me then you had better listen more than you talk. Training starts in the morning on the south side of the wheat fields." Vaughn then walked away, leaving Vaska and Epsilon alone.

The sun was just starting to set over _Lifs Mor'ranr,_ Vaska was starting to get hungry and could sense that Epsilon was as well. After helping clean the area, he headed over to one of the taverns that were not too far away from the market.

When he arrived with Epsilon by his side, he was immediately greeted by more people and was given his own table for him and Epsilon. A young man came up to him shortly after and took his request for pork stew and several raw strips of beef for Epsilon. He asked Vaska a few questions about the dragon to ease his curiosity before going back to the kitchen.

The tavern was large enough to have around two hundred people inside and still had room for dancing. It had a bar towards the far left side of the building that never was empty. And towards the back there was a section for dancing and they had a small group there that would play music for them to dance to. As suspected, he was getting stared at by several of the people there and could tell that they were curious about them just like the waiter.

"So this is what you've been hiding." A familiar voice said to him, referring to Epsilon.

Vaska turned around and saw Rode standing behind him with two mugs full of some alcoholic beverage foaming at the top. "Oh it's you. Do you want to have a seat?"

Rode sat down next to Vaska with Epsilon in between them both; he passed one of the drinks down to him and took a sip of his own. "So you're the new dragon rider?" Rode said as he patted Epsilon's head who just looked back at him.

"I guess so." Vaska stated as he took a small sip of the drink. "Epsilon hatched for me right after I went into the shrine on field day."

"Anything else that's interesting?"

Vaska took another sip of his drink and said, "Well I found out that Vaughn wants to kill me."

"I thought he doesn't stand in lines." Rode said jokingly to which Vaska shook his head.

Dawn crept over the horizon and fell over land of Surda and on the hidden town of _Lifs Mor'ranr_. Vaska could feel Epsilon pulling the blanket off of him, most likely for him to get up and get food. After opening his eyes and saw the dragon patiently waiting for him, he remembered that he was supposed to go train with Vaughn and his students. He threw the rest of the cover off of him and started to get dressed as fast as he could while Epsilon whined about its empty stomach.

He slung the bo-staff across his back then sheathed his short sword then attached his hidden blade to his left hand but didn't put the ring that activated it on his finger so he wouldn't accidently hurt himself during training. After he was done getting ready and dealing with the mental complaints of Epsilon, he got food out for the both of them and ate quickly before running out the door, with Epsilon following him this time.

Vaska had to slow down for the dragon, he could see Epsilon flapping its wings trying to take off. He then heard Epsilon try to say '_Slow._' to him through their mental connection; he noticed that Epsilon was starting to do that more often which because of Nicolas' journals, didn't surprise him.

Once the two of them arrived at the wheat fields, they saw about twenty different people paired up and doing various hand to hand combat exercises while being overlooked by Vaughn. They were doing their exercises in a very grassy area and off to their right was a circular dirt area that had weapon racks surrounding it.

As he approached them he saw that Epsilon was being eyed by all of the Assassins except for Vaughn. Vaska still needed time to get used to having the dragon follow him everywhere and didn't like the attention it was giving him.

He ran up to the group and came to a stop behind the Vaughn and apologized, "I'm sorry I'm late, I didn't realize that-"

"I don't want to hear any of the excuses that you decide to pull out of your ass!" Vaughn said as he turned to face Vaska. Epsilon gave a low growl until Vaska gave a silent command to stop. "Master Edom told you that you would be treated like any other Assassin, so I want your staff."

In a panic, he took his bo staff off its sling and held it out for Vaughn who ripped it from his hands. Vaughn then held it like a spear and threw it far off behind them. "You have thirty seconds to get it back, you've already used five!" He shouted.

Vaska sprinted towards his weapon as fast as he could. More than half of his time limit was already spent by the time he reached it and the time was expired by the time he returned. Vaughn snatched the weapon again and threw back behind him.

Vaska turned to start running again until Vaughn stopped him. "Did I tell you to move?" He shouted.

"No Instructor Vaughn."

"You told me yesterday that you wouldn't fail me and since you did you will not touch that until noon! Now join the others, they'll show you what to do."

Vaska ran over to a group with Epsilon and asked what they were doing. The two of them were around the same height as him and they were both wearing white robes; the two of them stared at the dragon rider for a second then answered. "We're doing drills on when someone approaches you with a knife. The move is going to disarm them and bring them into a head lock." The two of them took about five steps away from each other, one of them grabbing a knife-shaped piece of wood and concealed it behind his hand while the other took a defensive stance. The attacker then closed the distance between them and just as he extended the knife, the defender side-stepped to his left and brought his arm over the attacker's extended arm. While he was doing this, he used his other arm to strike the attacker in the neck. The knife suddenly dropped from the guy's hand for some reason that Vaska would ask when they were done.

Now that the attacker was disarmed, the defender used the arm that he used to strike the neck to wrap around his head while using his other arm to turn the attacker's body and successfully put him into a head lock and could easily restrain or kill him from there.

"How did you do that?" Vaska asked.

The defender then released the other guy and said. "Which part?"

"How did you disarm him? You didn't even touch the knife, all you did was wrap your arm around his."

The man then tossed the wooden knife to Vaska and said, "Attack me and I'll show you."

Vaska did as he was told and just as he expected, the guy wrapped his arm around his, "Ok I saw how you got me here but how did you disarm the blade?"

"like this." The defender then brought Vaska's arm to his chest and used his arm to push back on Vaska's forearm. With the applied pressure to his arm, Vaska felt that if he wanted to he could break his arm. He only found the tension fade when he loosened his grip on the knife until it fell out of his grasp. And as it hit the ground, the defender released him and took the knife. "Now it's your turn to defend; we'll do this five time on the left side then five times on your right."

Vaska did as he was told and played the part as the attacker for both of them as well. After practicing a few times more, Vaughn had everyone gather around him as he showed them another disarm technique.

Throughout the rest of the morning was spent doing these drills and only taking breaks for water. Epsilon had to stay out of the way of their training and just laid down underneath a shady tree and watched them. He was eventually allowed to get his staff back after asking Vaughn who was a lot calmer with him than he was before.

After a few more hours of training, everyone was released for the day and expected to return the next morning.

Vaska returned to his home and started to take off his equipment while making his way to his bed. His body was dotted with various bruises from training along with a few cuts and scrapes from being thrown down so many times. Epsilon soon walked into the room and jumped on the bed right next to him. _'Ok?' _was all the dragon could say with its limited vocabulary.

"I'm fine Epsilon." Vaska said with his face down in the pillow. There was then a knock at the door that was heard throughout the home. "What now?"

Vaska got up and made his way to the window and looked to see who it was. He saw several men outside the door dressed in casual clothing along with two horses that had a caisson hooked up to them. He opened the door and said, "Hello, can I help you?"

"Yes, are you Vaska?"

"Yes." He answered.

"We were sent here by an Assassin named Takara. She wanted us to let you know that your new home was ready and you need to move there as soon as possible and that we're here to help you move."


End file.
